Buckle assembly



C. A. BARESCH BUCKLE AS SEMBLY May 31, 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed NOV. 29, 1965 INVENTOR Gamma/4. 454E586 gan 8M y 1966 c. A. BARESCH 3,253,309

BUCKLE AS 5 EMBLY Filed Nov. 29, 1963 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 I i. E!

IN VE N TOR 63444245 A 194?.590/

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United States Patent 3,253,309 BUCKLE ASSEMBLY Charles A. Baresclr, 130 Sherbrooke Road, Amherst, N-Y. Filed Nov. 29, 1963, Ser. No. 327,017 3 Claims. (Cl. 24 170) This invention relates to buckles, and particularly to buckles for use on securing and restraining straps for fastening crates, packages, and the like against movement with respect to an enclosing carrier, typically an aircraft.

It has been observed that with many textile webbing materials such as are used for cargo straps, the tensile strength of the material, when tested simply as a length of material, is greater than the tensile strength of the same material when tested with a buckle in the length of material undergoing test. It is therefore apparent that the buckles of the prior art have an effect of concentrating the stress in part of the webbing, rather than spreading it throughout the width of the webbing. Under a breakdown test, the overstressed part fails first, with the result that the stress is transferred to the previously understressed parts and they, too, fail. The use of such a buckle effectively weakens the web or strap to which it is connected.

An object of the invention is to provide an improved buckle for a non-metallic, e.g., fabric strap.

Another object is to provide an improved buckle of the type described in. which the buckle structure is simplified as compared to the buckles of the prior art.

3 Another object is to provide a buckle of the type described in which transfer of stress from the web or strap to the buckle is spread over a substantial portion of the buckle structure and over a substantial area of the web, so that the tensile strength of the connected web and buckle is not substantially less than the tensile strength of the web alone.

Another object is to provide a buckle of the type described in which an increasing load on the web connected to the buckle tends to tighten the clamping action of the A0 buckle.

A further object is to provide a buckle of the type described which can readily be produced by mass production techniques, with close tolerances minimized.

The foregoing and other objects of the invention are attained in the buckles described herein. The presently preferred embodiment of the invention includes a frame consisting of a generally rectangular central plate with upstanding flanges along each of two opposed edges. A snubber pin extends between those flanges, and a floating plate is pivoted on the pin for limited movement. The floating plate extends generally parallel to the central plate. A pivot pin extends between the two flanges on the opposite sides of the floating plate from the central plate and carries a lever having an operating arm adapted for manual actuation and a gripping arm provided with teeth for engaging the web to be held by the buckle. The load carrying portion of the web extends between the floating plate and the central plate and is doubled back in a single U-shaped loop around the snubber pin and 0 then extends between the tooth-ed arm of the lever and the floating plate. The lever is operable between a clamping position in which the two layers of the web are clamped between the gripping arm and the central plate, and a free position in which the web is not clamped. A spring biases the lever toward the clamping position. The plane surface of the central plate, the floating plate, the snubber pin and the gripping surface of the lever define a closely confined path for the web. Along that path,

substantial areas of the web are compressively held in con- 70 tact with the various path defining surfaces. Any movement of the web with respect to one of those surfaces produces substantial friction between the web and the surface. The load carried by the web is transferred to the buckle through the compressive engagement of the web with the several path defining surfaces. Hence, portions of the load on the web are transferred to the buckle at several spaced localities along the web, so that the web and buckle are not unduly stressed at any one locality. On the contrary, the stress due to the load on the web is distributed throughout substantial portions of the web and throughout substantial portions of the buckle structure, without stress concentration at any particular point.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following specification and claims, taken together with the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is an overall elevational view of a complete cargo tie-down assembly including a buckle embodying the invention;

FIG. 1A is an elevational view, on an enlarged scale, of a hook fitting used in the assembly of FIG. 1;

FIG. 2 is a view of the buckle in FIG. 1, on a larger scale, partly in elevation and pantly in section;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the buckle of FIG. 2, with 5 the web removed:

0 fied form of buckle embodying the invention;

FIG. 7 is a plan view of the buckle of FIG. 6, with the web removed; and

FIG. 8 is a crosssectional view taken along the lines VIII-VIII of FIGS. 6 and 7.

FIGURES 1 to 5 There is shown in FIG. 1 a cargo tie-down assembly including a web l, which may be a cargo strap extending from a loop 2 at one end to a buckle 3 at its opposite end. The loop 2 may be formed by simply folding over the end of the strap 1 and stitching it, as indicated at 22 in FIG. 1A. The loop 2 extends through an aperture 23a in a hook fitting 23. The opposite end of the hook fitting 23 is bent at right angles and provided with an aperture, so that it may be fastened to an underlying support by means of a bolt 2312.

Another hook 24 cooperates with the buckle 3 and is attached to a strap 11 by means of a loop 12 formed in the end thereof. The other end of the strap 11 is provided with a loop 13 for attachment to another hook fitting 23. The hook 24 is preferably flat, as shown, having an aperture 24a for receiving the loop 12, and an upwardly bent hook portion 24b formed at its extremity.

The buckle 3 includes a frame consisting of a horizontal plate 4 and upstanding flanges 5, 6 along either edge of the plate 4. 'A snubber pin 7 has its end attached to the flanges 5 and 6 by any suitable method such as 'Welding or peening over the ends. A pivot pin 8 has its end similarly attached to the flanges 5 and 6. Rotatably mounted on the pivot pin 8 is the hub of a lever 9 having an operating arm 9a and a gripper arm 9b. The gripper arm is provided with a toothed gripping surface 90.

The plate 4 has a first plane portion 4a of substantial thickness extending from the right-hand end of the buckle, as it appears in the drawing, inwardly for a substantial distance to a point substantially opposite the innermost part of the gripping surface 9c. At that point, plane portion 4a of the plate 4 joins a tapered portion 4b having its upper surface extending downwardly and joining a thinner portion 40.

The strap 1 as shown in FIG. 2 includes a load carrying portion 1a which extends along the plane upper surface of the plate portion 4a, a loop portion 1b which extends from the load carrying portion in around the snubber pin 7, and third portion 10 which overlies the portion 1a and extends underneath the gripper surface 90 of the lever 9 and thence extends to a free end 1d of the web.

The lever 9 is shown in FIG. 2 in full lines in its gripping position, 'wherein the surface 90 is engaging the portion 1c of the web and is clamping that portion and the portion 1a against the plate 4 at the bottom of the buckle channel. The lever 9 is rotatable by lifting up the operating arm 9a to an angular position shown in a dot-dash line in FIG. 2, in which position the gripper surface 90 is free of the web 1 and the web can be freely slipped around the snubber pin 7 and over the plane surface 411.

When the lever 9 is in its clamping position the gripper surface 9c is generally parallel to the plane surface 4a on the upper side of the plate 4. When the parts are in that position, a portion of the load carried by the strap 1 is transferred to the plate 4, by its compressive engagement with the plate, and also at the point where the strap 1 bends over the connection of the plane surface 4a with the tapered surface 4b. Another portion of the load on the strap 1 is transferred to the buckle through the snubber pin 7. Still another portion of the load on the strap 1 is transferred to the buckle through the lever 9 and the pivot pin 8. Note that the load on the strap 1 tends to move the lower layer of the strap to the right as viewed in FIG. 2 and to move the upper layer of the strap to the left. Any such tendency of the upper layer to move to the left acts by virtue of this frictional engagement with the gripper surface 70 to rotate the lever 9 clockwise thereby tightening the grip of the toothed surface 90 and clamping the two layers of the web 1 even more tightly between the gripper surface and the plate 4.

The distribution of the load on the web 1 between the plate 4, the snubber pin 7 and the lever 9 is facilitated by so locating the snubber pin 7 so that its axis lies in a plane approximately halfway between and parallel to the plane surface of the plate 4 and the general plane of the toothed gripper surface 9c when the latter is in its gripping position. By virtue of that location of the snubber pin, the web is guided into a tortuous path which has a turn at the left end of the plane portion of the plate 4, another turn around the snubber pin, and a third turn at the point where it first engages the gripper arm 9b (the left end of gripper surface 9c). At each of these turning points, part of the web load is transferred to the buckle structure.

The side flanges 5 and 6 of the web are provided with extensions 5a, 6a, which extend beyond the snubber pin 7 to the left, as viewed in the drawing. A cross pin 10 extends between and has its ends attached to the extensions 5a, 6a, as by welding or peening. The pin 10 is adapted to receive the bent over portion 24b of the hook 24. Note that the cross pin 10 is located'between the flange extensions 5a, 6a, at a point slightly below the snubber pin 7, as viewed in FIG. 2. By virtue of this arrangement, the tension forces in the web act to hold the buckle tightly against the underlying crate or package on which the buckle and web are used, thereby inhibiting any tendency of the buckle to vibrate away from that package.

FIGURES 6 to 8 These figures illustrate a modified and presently preferred embodiment of my invention. In this embodiment, the buckle is shown at 14, and consists of a generally rectangular plate 14a having upstanding flanges 14b and 14c formed at opposite edges thereof. The plate 14:: and flanges 14b may be conveniently formed as a stamping from a single piece of metal, for example sheet steel. The two flanges 14b and 140 are then drilled on a drill press to provide three aligned pairs of holes to receive pins 15, 16 and 17. The pin 15 of FIG. 7 corresponds to the cross-pin 10 of FIGS. 2 and 3, except that it is held in place by means of snap rings 18 received in the grooves adjacent its ends and on the outside of the flanges 14b and 140. The pin 16 serves as a snubber pin generally similar to the snubber pin 7 of FIGS. 2 and 3. On the snubber pin there is pivotally mounted a floating plate 19. The plate 19 is formed of sheet metal which is relatively thin as compared to the plate 14a and flanges 14b and 140, and is readily deformable. The lefthand end of the plate 19, as it appears in the drawing, is rolled over, as shown at 19a, to form a hollow tube for loosely receiving the pin 16. The pin 16 is held in place on the flanges 14b and in a manner similar to the pin 15.

A lever 20, generally similar to the lever 9 of FIGS. 2 and 3, is pivoted on the pin 17. The lever 20 has an operating arm 20a and a gripper arm 20b corresponding respectively to the arms 9a, 9b of the lever 9. The lever 20 is drilled to provide an aperture 20c of relatively small diameter for snugly receiving the pin 17 so that the lever 20 is journaled on the pin 17. An extension 20d of the aperture 20c has a larger diameter for receiving a coil spring 21 whose righthand end, as shown in FIG. 8, is bent over and inserted in a drilled hole 20a in the lever, so as to fix that end of the spring with respect to the lever 20. The outer end of the spring 21 extends tangentially from the coil, as shown at 21a in FIGS. 6 and 7 to the pin 16 and has its end bent around the pin 16, so as to fix that end with respect to the frame of the buckle. Spring 21 is arranged to bias the lever 20 to the gripping position shown in FIG. 6. The grip is released by lifting the righthand end of lever 20. The pin 17 is held in place in the flanges 14b and 14c by means of snap rings 18, similar to those used on the pin 15.

The web or strap 1 includes a lower horizontal portion which extends along the upper surface of the plate 14a, thence around the pivot pin 16 in a single U-shaped loop and an upper horizontal portion extends back between the snubber plate 19 and the gripper arm 20b. The parts are so dimensioned that when the gripper arm 20]; is in the position shown in FIG. 6 is full lines, the teeth on the gripper arm compress the web and forces it against the floating plate 19, which in turn forces the lower horizontal portion of the web against the plate 140. The load on the web 1 is transferred to the buckle 14 through its forcible engagements with the plate 14a, with the floating plate 19, and also through its engagement with the pivot pin 16 and the gripper arm 20b of lever 20.

Since the floating plate 19 is made thick and relatively yieldable, it will be somewhat deformed when first placed in service by being gripped between two parts of the Web held between the gripper arm 20b and the plate 14a. This deformation compensates for any variation in dimension in the manufacture of various parts of the buckle. This preliminary deformation is such that the plate 19 closely follows the contour of the lower horizontal portion of the web 1. The area of frictional contact between web 1 and plate 19 is thus increased to the maxi mum possible, extending substantially the full Width of the plate 19 and of the web 1. Thus the stress on the web is transferred to the buckle over the entire width of the web, and the tensile strength of the web and buckle assembly is substantially the same as the tensile strength of the web. For example, in the stamping operation which forms the flanges 14b and 140, there may be some inaccuracy in forming certain buckles when they are made in large volume by mass production methods. Similarly, there may be inaccuracies in the drilling of the holes which carry the pins 15, 16 and 17, so that those pins may not be exactly parallel. Nevertheless, in spite of substantial inaccuracies in manufacture, the structure shown will grip the web tightly at spaced localities along its length and will hold it firmly engaged with the snubber pin 16.

Hence, the stress on the web is distributed over substantial areas of the web and the buckle so that the parts of the web gripped by the buckle are not subjected to stress concentrations. The entire load on the web is not transferred to the buckle at one locality but is partly transferred directly to the plate 14a, and partly through the pins 16 and 17.

Since the dimensional relationships of some of the parts are important in secuning the best results, the following dimensions are given as an example of a buckle which Was constructed and tested successfully with stress transfer characteristics as outlined above.

Web thickness=0.160"

Thickness of snubber plate 19:0.030

Spacing between plate 14a and tips of teeth 20b, in posi tion of FIG. 6:0.155

Spacing between iplate 14a and center line of pin While I have shown and described certain preferred embodiments of my invention, other modifications thereof will readily occur to those skilled in the art, and I therefore intend my invention to be limited only by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A buckle for clamping the end of a flexible web comprising: I

(a) a frame having a continuous planar surface adapted to be engaged by said web;

(b) a snubber pin fixed on said frame, said snubber pin being disposed with its axis parallel to said planar surface and displaced therefrom;

(c) a floating plate having one end pivoted on said snubber pin and extending therefrom generally parallel to said continuous planar surface;

(d) said flexible web including a first load-carrying portion extending between said surface and a first side of said floating plate, a U-shaped loop extending from said first portion around said one end of said floating plate, and a second portion extending from said loop and across a second, opposite side of said floating plate; and

(e) a lever pivoted on said frame and having a gripper arm and an operating arm, said lever being rotatable by actuation of said operating arm between:

(1) a clamping position in which rotation of the lever in one direction is limited by engagement of a gripping surface on the gripping anm with said second portion of the web and said gripper arm cooperates with said floating plate and with said continuous planar surface of said frame to clamp said first and second portions of said webyand (2) a free position in which said gripper arm is free from said second [portion and said Web may be freely slipped around said one end of said floating plate and along its opposite sides;

(f) said cooperating gripper arm and said continuous planar surface being effective to transfer a portion of the load carried by the web to said frame, the remainder of the load being transferred to the frame through the snubber pin.

2. A buckle as defined in claim 1, in which the floating plate is of thin, deformable sheet metal.

3. A buckle for clamping a flexible web comprising:

(a) a frame having a surface adapted to be engaged by the web;

(b) clamping means pivoted on said frame; and

(re) a floating plate having one end pivoted on said frame and extending between said clamping means and said surface;

'(d) said flexible web including a first load-carrying portion extending between said surface and said floating plate, a U-shaped loop extending from said first portion around said one end of said floating plate, and a second portion extending from the loop and between said floating plate and said clamping means;

(e) said clamping means being adjustable to a clamping position for clamping said second portion of said web to said floating plate and for clamping said first portion of said web between said floating plate and said surface, and to a free position in which said web may be slipped along said floating plate.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,079,080 11/1913 Ward 24-170 2,538,641 1/1951 Elsner 24170 2,679,670 6/1954 Griswold 24273 X FOREIGN PATENTS 281,393 1/1915 Germany.

WILLIAM FELDMAN, Primary Examiner.

DONLEY J. STOCKING, Examiner.

E. SIMONSEN, Assistant Exammer. 

3. A BUCKLE FOR CLAMPING A FLEXIBLE WEB COMPRISING: (A) A FRAME HAVING A SURFACE ADAPTED TO BE ENGAGED BY THE WEB; (B) CLAMPING MEANS PIVOTED ON SAID FRAME; AND (C) A FLOATING PLATE HAVING ONE END PIVOTED ON SAID FRAME AND EXTENDING BETWEEN SAID CLAMPING MEANS AND SAID SURFACE; (D) SAID FLEXIBLE WEB INCLUDING A FIRST LOAD-CARRYING PORTION EXTENDING BETWEEN SAID SURFACE AND SAID FLOATING PLATE, A U-SHAPED LOOP EXTENDING FROM SAID FIRST PORTION AROUND SAID ONE END OF SAID FLOATING PLATE, AND A SECOND PORTION EXTENDING FROM THE LOOP AND BETWEEN SAID FLOATING PLATE AND SAID CLAMPING MEANS; (E) SAID CLAMPING MEANS BEING ADJUSTABLE TO A CLAMPING POSITION FOR CLAMPING SAID SECOND PORTION OF SAID WEB TO SAID FLOATING PLATE AND FOR CLAMPING SAID FIRST PORTION OF SAID WEB BETWEEN SAID FLOATING PLATE AND SAID SURFACE, AND TO A FREE POSITION IN WHICH SAID WEB MAY BE SLIPPED ALONG SAID FLOATING PLATE. 